Target 4.4: Skills for employment and entrepreneurship
By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship
Owners voting their values help. Others must carry most of it.
Why shareholder democracy is helpful
Employers directly provide much technical and vocational skill formation through training and apprenticeships, so corporate conduct is relevant. Governments and public TVET systems carry most of the target. The Global Partnership for Education notes that businesses can offer apprenticeships, mentoring and leadership training and reach communities through their employees and supply chains. Investors have organized on the issue. The Human Capital Management Coalition, 25 institutional investors managing over $2.8 trillion, petitioned the SEC in 2017 for disclosure rules covering workforce skills and capabilities. UN Women's 2025 review finds private-sector efforts on women's economic empowerment remain fragmented and under-measured. We found no shareholder resolution at an individual company specifically on workforce skills investment. Owners help at the margin while public systems carry the outcome.
How this was scoredHelpful
Helpful. Owners voting their values help. Others must carry most of it.
We have not yet written down the two answers behind this rating. Recording them on every item, so a reader can check the reasoning and not only the conclusion, is work in progress.
Every rating is the higher of two answers, one for what companies do and one for what they spend to stop the outcome, because the same vote reaches both. See the full method.
Sources
- Businesses are critical partners in advancing girls' education. Here is why, Global Partnership for Education, 2020-12-14
- $2.8 Trillion Investor Coalition Petitions U.S. SEC To Require Increased Disclosure Of Human Capital Management Information, Human Capital Management Coalition via PR Newswire, 2017-07-10
- Unfinished business: Private sector and gender equality, UN Women, 2025-09
What civil society organizations are helping owners on this
Petitioned the SEC in July 2017 on behalf of investors managing 2.8 trillion dollars for disclosure standards covering nine human capital categories, one of which is workforce skills and capabilities.
Coordinates the Workforce Disclosure Initiative, through which more than 120 institutional investors with over 14 trillion dollars in assets asked 750 major companies to disclose standardised workforce management data.
Over 120 Investors press big brands for workforce transparency, ShareAction
Related subjects on other maps
How this rating was made
Every item on every one of our maps is read against one question: how far does this depend on the people who own companies voting their values? We answer it twice, once for what companies do and once for what they spend to stop the outcome, and take whichever answer is higher, since the same vote reaches both. The score carries its reasoning and its sources so that a reader can check it rather than take it.
- Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
- Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes, and others must also act.
- Helpful. Owners voting their values help, and others carry most of it.
- Independent. This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
The advocacy record on this page holds only what a source we opened says happened. Where we searched and found nothing, the page says so rather than leaving a silence. Where a campaign names a filer the source does not name, it says that too. Ratings are ours; the list of subjects is UN Sustainable Development Goals's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.